Aircraft (e.g., commercial aircraft) commonly include landing gear (e.g., left main landing gear, right main landing gear, etc.) that may be hydraulically actuated to move between a deployed position and a retracted position. For example, the landing gear of an aircraft may by hydraulically actuated to move from the deployed position to the retracted position subsequent to and/or in connection with a takeoff procedure of the aircraft, and from the retracted position back to the deployed position prior to and/or in connection with a landing procedure of the aircraft.
Hydraulic actuation of the landing gear typically occurs in response to a manual actuation (e.g., via a pilot of the aircraft) of a landing gear lever located in a cockpit of the aircraft. During takeoff, the manual actuation of the landing gear lever by the pilot of the aircraft occurs only after the pilot has first ascertained (e.g., physically determined) that the aircraft is airborne (e.g., that no landing gear of the aircraft is in contact with a ground surface). As a result of typical human and/or pilot response times, the time at which the manual actuation of the landing gear lever occurs may be delayed relative to the time at which the aircraft first becomes airborne. Such delays limit the aircraft payload in connection with obstacle-impeded takeoffs, as may occur in association with runways that are surrounded by trees, walls, and/or other vertically-projecting structures to be cleared by the aircraft during takeoff.
Some known aircraft implement landing gear that must be shrunk (e.g., reduced in length) prior to being moved from the deployed position to the retracted position. For example, the length of the landing gear may need to be reduced (e.g., shrunk) such that the landing gear is able to fit within the spatial confines of a well of the aircraft that stows the landing gear in the retracted position. In such known aircraft, the shrinking of the landing gear is may be performed by the same hydraulic system that moves the landing gear from the deployed position to the retracted position. The hydraulic system, however, typically does not have sufficient power to perform the shrinking and retraction processes in parallel. Thus, the hydraulic system must first perform the shrinking process, and then serially perform the retraction process. This two-stage serial process is initiated via the manual actuation of the landing gear lever by the pilot of the aircraft as described above.